At least the Pirates are chasing some upside this time. There must, after all, be a non-zero chance that Bobby Crosby, who turns 30 in January, can reemerge as a legitimate contributor. He finished with OPSs of 744 as a rookie and 802 in 84 games as a sophomore before plummeting to 636, 619, 645 and 652 the last four years.
But that is four years of flat-out terrible results. And it’s not like he’s a quality gloveman. The Pirates tried for one of them first, making Adam Everett an offer before he re-signed with the Tigers on Monday. Crosby started out as an average defense shortstop and certainly hasn’t gotten any better after dealing with so many various injuries over the last five years.
Crosby would likely be a downgrade from incumbent Ronny Cedeno, though since Cedeno is a stopgap himself, there wouldn’t be a lot to lose from making a switch. One of the Pirates’ biggest priorities has to be finding a new long-term option at shortstop. Crosby wouldn’t be a candidate to fill that role even if he did bounce back to post a 750 OPS in 2010. If the idea is to gamble, why not do so with Khalil Greene instead? There’s certainly more offensive and defensive upside there, and the cost would be small enough that the Pirates could still afford to keep Cedeno around as a fallback.